Choosing a Baby Name

Our first baby, whom I call Faith on my blog, was born almost eleven years ago. One of the most fun things about being pregnant is deciding what to name your baby. We poured over baby name books and tossed around ideas. Finally, we decided that we wanted our kids’ names to have meaning. We didn’t just want a pretty or stylish name.

We agreed to name our first daughter after a family member. I have told you that I don’t use my kids’ real names on my blog for their privacy and protection. So in order to tell the story of her name, I’m going use another fictitious name. Let’s say the family member I named her after is Susan. We found the Hebrew form of her name very beautiful and named her Shoshannah.

This is not a very common name, and we weren’t sure what people’s response would be, so we kept it a secret until she was born. At the hospital, Jason’s parents were there to support us. They waited through the long night hours, and when she was finally born, they came in the room and asked, “So what’s her name?”

“Shoshannh!” we replied smiling.

Their eyes grew wide and in unison my in-laws said, “Oh.” We’ve always laughed about that. I think her name has grown on them!

When I took my daughter to her very first doctor’s appointment, the nurse came out, studied her chart for a moment and then stuttered, “Shoe..anna?” As I got up and walked through the door, the only thing I could think was, “What have I done to my poor child?”

Thankfully at eleven she really likes her name and recently a mother of a friend of hers named her new little baby after her.

It wasn’t easy, but that is how we decided on our baby’s name. How did you decide on your baby’s name? Or do you have a great story on how your parents decided on your name?